The State Railway Workers’ Union of Thailand (SRUT)

The State Railway Workers’ Union of Thailand (SRUT) has been fighting against the government’s plans to privatise the State Railway of Thailand since 1987. The union organised several strikes in the last 20 years, even though strikes are strongly prohibited by both the Labour and Criminal laws. More recently, the temporary military government which came in after the 19 September 2006 coup d’état tried to privatise by splitting it into four companies and allowing private operators to run rail freight services and express trains, and to manage railway land and properties.

On 31 October 2007, all trains came to a halt for eight hours during a nationwide ‘sick leave’ strike organised by SRUT. The government and railway management had to revoke their privatisation plan and signed a collective agreement with SRUT. The most significant point in the agreement states that the union should be consulted before any future privatisation plan, and has to give its consent before the implementation.

SRUT was strongly organised and prepared for the strike. The locomotive drivers have been the main force in every action as they could not be replaced by other railway workers to perform their jobs.

Before resuming the normal service, the railway management and the government had to agree with SRUT to consider the strike action as normal work, and therefore no worker taking part in the strike would be punished. The management also accepted the SRUT’s request to investigate allegations of corruption within the rail administration, while the government promised to build a cross-country double-track railway.

At present, the rail network in Thailand has expanded into many routes, such as the double track between Bangkok and its suburbs, and the rail link between the capital and the new Bangkok International Airport (Suvarnabhumi Airport). The new rail extensions totalling 263 km towards the north and south of Bangkok, together with the terrible road traffic in the capital and ever increasing oil prices have created better conditions for implementing the project for the much needed cross-country double-track railway.

As for urban transport, the Bangkok Mass Transit System (BTS) or Skytrain and the underground metro called the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) have a combined route length of 53 km only. Unfortunately, the number of employees in BTS is less than 200, and SRUT is not able to organise them because labour legislation does not allow workers from the private sector to join the same unions as workers from state enterprises. Another union organising some 200 workers in MRT proved to be weak and not involved in the trade union movement and ITF international activities, as they had been influenced by the management.

Three major political parties taking part in the general elections organised on 23 December 2007 pledged to keep railways in the public sector and to build the railway across the country. On 26 March 2008, the elected transport minister signed an agreement with a construction company to build the dual-track railway throughout the country and finish the 263 km line.

The State Railway Workers’ Union of Thailand has achieved significant progress since the nationwide ‘sick leave’ strike against privatization, and all its demands are already in place. The management board of has revoked its resolution to employ workers from a private company as locomotive drivers and train staff, and must seek union consent before attempting to implement any measures that might affect workers’ rights and their working conditions.

The union also has to face the unstable political situation, generated by the present government and parliament. The speaker of the parliament has been suspended and taken to court to answer charges of electoral fraud. Moreover, the new Prime Minister Samak is from the same political party as the ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who allegedly abused power and is accused of favouring corruption during his administration. Therefore, Mr Samak’s government has been trying all possible ways to protect the former Prime Minister from being found guilty of any accusation. The People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), the most powerful group outside the parliament, has intensified its efforts to object to the recent government’s initiative to amend the state constitution in order to help their own people/party to be cleared of all charges.

SRUT has been campaigning for a long time to amend the labour legislation in order to allow workers in both state and private sectors to join the same unions. According to the new constitution of Thailand, 10,000 signatures from union members or citizens eligible to vote are needed in order to propose a new law or amendmends to an existing law. Now the workers are collecting the necessary 10,000 signatures, although the process is complicated, as the state constitution requires copies of house registration and identity card of all those signing the petition. However, the union is confident it will succeed to submit the charter of 10,000 signatures to the government and parliament on the 1st of May 2008, International Workers’ Day.

This is the edited and updated version of the Thailand Country Report “Organising for our rights” by Somsak Kosaisook, adviser to SRUT and former president of SRUT, presented at the ITF Asia/Pacific Railway Workers’ Section meeting, Jakarta, 10 – 11 December 2007.